At HSABC, students learn to observe carefully, to explore on their own, to develop their archaeological imagination and intuitions, and to connect individually and fruitfully with the great literature, art and architecture from the past that they study and experience while they are here at Humanities Spring. Over the years, work-study has become an integral part of the HSABC student experience. Thanks to our work-study program, many HSABC students stay in Assisi for as many as 6 weeks, have valuable individual work experiences and create close friendships with Italian students their own age. Slowly Assisi, with all the great art and architecture it contains -- classical, medieval and Renaissance -- becomes home.

HSABC starts with a 14-day orientation period in Assisi, Umbria. Students spend the first week doing an intensive study of mythology in literature, art (from classical to contemporary), architecture, opera and more. They discover its importance to classical life and thought and see many beautiful works of art and architecture in the process. During our first week, students get used to the rhythm of Italian life and evenings often go into Assisi's for ice-cream, impromptu concerts, classical and jazz, and the quiet hum of piazza life. Our mythology week includes a day trip to Florence.

In our second week, students get to know the Roman city and the important role paintings, sculptures and mosaics played in it, by exploring small, nearby Roman and Etruscan cities & sites & learn in the process to recognize their component parts (amphitheaters cubicula (bedrooms) mosaics, gates, baths, tombs, temples and more!). Students observe, sketch, ask questions and try to understand (with our help) what they are seeing,

Students also do independent research in our HSABC library, with the help of an HS tutor, on topics that interest them from our topics list (from Roman baths to household shrines, from temples to city gates) all of which illuminate the smaller places we see nearby Assisi as well as Rome, Pompeii, Naples and Paestum (which we travel to see together our 3rd week). Students present their research to the rest of the group when we are all on site. Our second week, students also debate (and decide!) whether they think ancient Roman Assisi was a sanctuary; they use their own research and powers of observation to document their views. The week ends with a visit to the beautiful breath-taking 3rd c. b.c. sanctuary of Palestrina outside Rome.

Our third week HSABC heads south for a direct, firsthand experience of Rome, Pompeii, Paestum and Naples. Knowledge of the small Umbrian ancient Roman and Etruscan sites we have visited together helps students to get oriented at these larger sites. We also tour the beautiful Amalfi Coast with a stop at the Roman villa in Minori.
In Naples we visit the wonderful national archeological museum there which Henry James spent 6 weeks visiting, have a walking tour, where students discover the ghost of the Roman city underlying the modern one. We also spend time on the whimsical street where traditional Christmas creche figures are made by hand all year long,
In Rome, we visit the forum, pantheon, Palatine Hill, Colosseum, Piazza Navona, Trevi Fountain and of course St Peter’s and the Vatican Museums (and much more!). Students present their research everywhere we go and often write or sketch when we are on site Everywhere we go, we spend time in beautiful, lively squares, eating ice cream, listening to street musicians and becoming a part of Italian piazza life,

Students also attend concerts during our travels (many in Assisi, as well). Most years, we attend at least one Italian opera and/or performance of contemporary dance at summer festivals. When we are lucky (which is often — we make a real effort to make the schedule work!) we attend events inside the archaeological site at Paestum at night at one of the temples or at Pompeii's Teatro Grande.

Students have a different mix of classes, both at home and on site, all aimed at helping them to connect better to the places we travel to see and experience together. Classes are different each week and include, just to give a few examples: Types of Archeological Evidence; Myths as Archetypes, Myths as mirrors; The Roman City: gates, walls and streets; Heinrich Schliemann as a way into Roman Assisi; Spotlight on a late Renaissance villa with frescoes of myths and the life of Julius Caesar (why these myths, why the life of Caesar?); Collage as way of seeing souvenirs; Rectangular temples, rounds temples and the Pantheon. Everywhere we go, students write about or sketch the unique and inspiring ancient places we see, making them more their own in the process.

Students also have Survival Italian, a thirty minute class each day; in week 1 they learn to introduce themselves, order ice cream, get directions and have rudimentary conversations with people they meet. In weeks 2 & 3, Survival Italian becomes archeological; students read and translate brief Italian texts (historical, art historical, sometimes from guide books) about what we are going to see that day. Don’t worry, the Italian students help them and so do we!


Our home bases: in Assisi: a turn-of-the-century schoolhouse in the hills outside Assisi with nooks and crannies and lofts; and views of fields, dogs, kittens, and sheep.
in Paestum: a beautiful & comfortable, modernized 18th-century villa with gardens, terraces, and air-conditioning, a short drive both from the ancient Greek (and Roman) site of Paestum and from a beautiful Paestum beach.
in Rome; the charming Vacanze Romane, a villa with a lovely park, orchards, swimming pool and tennis courts, a ten minute drive from a small lake where we swim and paddle-boat and have our (optional) water-color class.
In Naples, Chiaja Hotel De Charme, a traditional and elegant Neapolitan hotel with coffee, tea and wonderful pastries served every afternoon,

It is important to us at HSABC that students have time to relax and process at their own pace all the beautiful works of art, literature and architecture that we study and experience together.

HSABC 2024 will run from August 4th to August 25th and cost 3,200 euros (circa 3,400 dollars); our work-study scholarships make it possible for students to extend their stay and help bring down the cost for families in the process; we award students 100 euros for each week of work-study (e.g. if a student does two weeks of work-study, their HSABC tuition will be 3,000 euros/c. 3,200 dollars). Work-study is individual and tailored to each student. Students often come a week or two early or stay on for an extra week or two (occasionally 3) to be assistants at HS Kids: Actors, Sculptors and Cooks, a residential full-immersion English arts, cooking and theater program we run for Italian students ages 7 - 16, with theme weeks on Mythology, Botany and Shakespeare. HSABC students may be assistant tutors in our art theater, cooking, nature, music and writing activities. Work-study has become a way for HSABC students to gain important work experience and contribute to the Humanities Spring community in the process. HSABC students also travel with us on all HS Kids trips (often to places they have not visited before).

HSABC is open to all interested students. Students need have no previous knowledge or background in archaeology, Latin, Greek, Art History, or Italian. The only prerequisites at HSABC are enthusiasm and the desire to learn. We find that different backgrounds and interests make the experience more inspiring and stimulating for everyone. For the last 6 years, our group has been a mix of Italian and American students with the occasional international student attending as well.

Our HSABC director, Jane R. Oliensis, got her degrees in Classics and English at Harvard and Columbia Universities. Professor Oliensis taught at the Università degli Studi in Perugia, Italy for many years. She now devotes herself exclusively to Humanities Spring. Other staff include archaeologists and poets, classicists and painters from all over the world. We are a small community (never more than 30 between students and staff). Inside the classroom, in our mini-vans, on site or at meals (Italian of course, often several courses!) conversation is at the heart of the HSABC experience. At HSABC we all learn together.